Celeb blogger Perez Hilton introduces son Mario III

The celebrity blogger Hollywood loves to hate has been hard at work rehabilitating his image as the nasty bully of the Internet.

If the reaction to Hilton's recent announcement that he'd had a baby boy, via a surrogate, is any indication, his image makeover is complete.

Hilton's Twitter feed was flooded with well-wishes from his 6.3 million followers, including the famous folk whose embarrassments he once used as snarky fodder to make him rich.

In a new Los Angeles Times feature, Hilton, real name Mario Lavandeira Jr. reveals a new leaf, not just the first clear images of his baby boy, Mario III.

"I feel like it spiraled out of control," Hilton said. "It got progressively meaner and bitchier. I ended up becoming someone I didn't want to be."

The new kinder, calmer Hilton has bled into his status as a new dad, including the blessing ceremony he's planning for the baby rather than a traditional christening.

"I'll have everybody write down little positive thoughts and intentions and well wishes and keep them all in a box of good energy in his room," Hilton said.

The birth of Mario III, sometimes called Perez Jr., came as a surprise to everyone but Hilton's mom, sister, lawyer and business manager. The baby is Hilton's biological son, through an anonymous egg donor and a surrogate, whose identity has been kept secret.

On February 16, a month before the baby was due, Hilton say he received a panicked phone call from the surrogate that her water had broken and labor would be induced. Hilton rushed to get on a plane, and made it in time to witness the birth of his son.

Hilton, who turns 35 this week, said this had always been the plan.

"I knew it was going to happen this way because boyfriends and husbands may come and go, but kids are forever," he said. "I didn't want to keep waiting."

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